The clash with the Goldstones came to a screeching halt. Shiki was unconscious, while Weisz and Rebecca were injured and needed medical treatment ASAP. Homura was fending off against the Goldstones, but i scenario there was only so much she could do. Blair had to force her way out of the Eden's Zero in order to intervene, but someone else did instead. A masked, suited warrior known as the Blue Bomber. The masked warrior glanced around between the wounded crew of the Eden's Zero and the Goldstones. Blair was just ready to fight anyone.
"And who the hell is this clown?" Blair asked.
"…" The Blue Bomber didn't respond.
"Who's the freakin' vampire?"
"What'd you call me!?" Blair glared towards the Blue Bomber. The voice clearly came from him and she WOULD fight him!
"The knight in blue armor finally decided to show up again." Athena said while rolling her eyes. "Can't you see we're a little busy? We still have to go exterminate the rest of the resistance. We were just warming up with these."
"This guy always sticks his nose in when he's least wanted." Max rolled his eyes. "You know, maybe this is a good day for us after all. Even if we miss the Resistance today, taking out these guys would be a pretty big milestone on our record. That wimpy Galactica on the ground?" He gestured to Shiki. "Hardly a threat."
"Shiki…" Rebecca winced. She couldn't use her Cat Leaper, because Max shot her in the leg before she had the chance to activate it. Anti-ether bullets put both her and Weisz out of commission, and Shiki was still conscious for reasons she couldn't understand.
"Let's take the Blue Bomber out right now!" Max said while leaping back into the canopy of trees. Kamara and Athena sighed at their brother's hastiness.
"We don't have the time for this, Max." Kamara said while shaking her head. She was ready to fight if the Blue Bomber was, however. "But you have been a pain in the ass for a while now."
The Blue Bomber looked back towards Homura and Blair. "Get your friends out of here."
"They're not my friends." Blair said.
"Now is not the time to argue!" Homura said. "Weisz is badly hurt and the ship still won't open…!"
"Ngh…" Weisz had done his best to close the bullet wound in his stomach, but he needed serious medical attention.
"I won't let you get the chance!" Max fired a bullet towards the unconscious Shiki, but Homura was the one who blocked it. She deflected it back to where it came from, but naturally it wasn't a hit. Last time she got close, but this time it was completely off. "Nice try!"
"I know where you are!" The Blue Bomber quickly turned behind him and his cannon arm let loose the blast it was charging. A shot of ether soared through the air before exploding against a tree. Max rolled out in the nick of time, giving the Blue Bomber an annoyed grin. It wasn't quite a hit, but the fact Max nearly fell from his hiding place from such an accurate shot told everyone precisely what the needed to know about the Blue Bomber. He was not a foe to be taken lightly. "You won't trick me with that again."
"He knew where he was…!?" Rebecca gasped. Every time they tried to strike back against Max, he was never in the same place his shots came from. The Goldstones kept their Ether Gear's information close to their chest, not giving the crew of Eden's any time to understand or try to counter what was being thrown at them. it was clever, but extremely annoying at the same time. They couldn't best foes when they didn't know how they fought!
Kamara rushed in with her sword, swinging towards the Blue Bomber. The Blue Bomber's left arm turned into an emerald blade and clashed with her. He was able to hold his ground against her just fine, but he sensed Athena approaching. He wasn't fast enough and she slammed her shield into him, causing him to tumble against the ground. "Protecting people again? That's going to be your downfall!" Athena hummed while snapping her fingers, creating a reticle on the Blue Bomber that allowed the subsequent blasts of light she release to track him.
"I wonder who's behind the mask." Kamara said.
"On your six!"
"I know!" The Blue Bomber said, regaining his composure while taking off into the air. He started to fly, quite literally, much to the shock of the conscious crew of Eden's. Not only that, but any blast of light that came near him, he simply fazed through.
"Ugh! That's so annoying!" Athena grunted. "I can't wait to tear that mask right off you!"
"He can fly!?" Homura's eyes widened as she supported Rebecca off the ground. Blair was stuck having to throw Weisz over her shoulder, and dragging Shiki along.
"Sure, that's cool and all, but how the hell are we supposed to get these guys to safety?" Blair said while staring up at the Eden's Zero. "I came in through the window. Sister can probably heal him, but…"
"You guys got a healer?" Max said while walking towards them. "Ain't gonna work. Those anti-ether bullets stay stuck for a while. Those two are gonna be outta commission for a while."
"Damn that guy…" Weisz grunted in pain.
"And now you're just easy pickings." Max said while aiming his gun towards Homura. Since she was helping Rebecca, it meant she wasn't using her arms to use her swords. So he took a shot, but Rebecca surprised him by use of her Happy Blaster. She grabbed them thanks to Homura. A few shots were fired and Max had to dodge them. "Oh! You're not a bad shot!"
"…" Rebecca glared at Max. He was belittling her, but there wasn't a lot she could do in her state.
"We must do first aid, but we have to escape this confrontation first." Homura said. "If only Shiki were awake. What happened to him!?"
"I don't know! He said something about bugs and he panicked and passed out." Rebecca exclaimed. "But we never saw any bugs on him."
"He's afraid of bugs!? Are you serious!?" Blair groaned.
"Yes, I agree…this is not a good time for his fear to get the best of him." Homura said.
The Blue Bomber was flying towards the ground with his fist reared back, ice surrounding his left arm. "Ice Knuckle!" He swung it into the ground, causing a sheet of ice to explode outwards. This nearly caught Athena, Kamara, and Max within its radius, but they were able to evade it thanks to Athena's shield. The blast curved around them, and a section of the jungle was completely frozen over.
"Too slow." Athena winked.
The elements changed on the Blue Bomber's fist, shifting to fire. "Heat Knuckle!" He swung again, this time horizontally. The same result was before: it was blocked by Athena's shield, but the flames did melt the ice that was created. The water was noticeable on the field and that's all he wanted, because the next element on the list was lightning. "Lightning Knuckle!" He slammed his fist into the ground drenched with water, waves of lightning traversing through the ground to shock the Goldstones.
"Shit, look out!" Kamara suddenly barked, realizing what was about to happen. She shoved Athena and Max to the ground, leaving herself open to the electric shock. "Ngh…!"
"Who is this guy…!?" Weisz asked. They were struggling against the Goldstones, but this Blue Bomber was holding himself pretty well!
"Hey, Hermit!" Sister asked from the ship. "What's going on down there? The Radio Waves are spiking like crazy."
"No idea…" Hermit said. "I can only think of one reason why that would be, but even so…."
The Blue Bomber saw his opening while all of the Goldstones were recovering. He launched himself towards Athena, who instinctively put her shield up. In this moment of action, she forgot that the Blue Bomber could faze through objects and people. "Got you!" The Blue Bomber exclaimed while appearing behind Athena, swinging his leg directly at her back to knock her away. He then turned to the paralyzed Kamara, charging and firing off a gigantic blast of ether in her direction. "Mega Buster!"
The Mega Buster attack didn't get very far as another bullet collided and exploded against it. The Blue Bomber narrowed his eyes, turning towards Max and glaring at him through his red visor. Max just laughed. "Not bad, Blue Bomber. You've gotten a little better at fighting us, however…not only are you outnumbered, but you're still just a rookie. Still, I'll hand it to you. Using our sister's affection for us against us, pretty crafty. You saw a weakness and tried to exploit it, but we're siblings. We know how to cover each other's back. All you do is fight alone, so you don't have that same luxury."
"….I don't need anyone else anyway." The Blue Bomber responded. "I'll keep fighting alone, because there's no one else I can depend on as is."
"Tch." Blair scoffed. "Is he trying to sound cool?"
Kamara was able to stand up now and dusted herself off. "Thank you, Max. Now then…we're seriously running out of time. I think we may have missed our chance to finish the Resistance because of all of these distractions."
"We might be able to catch them." Athena pondered, glancing at the crew of the Eden's Zero. "But I would hate to leave this matter unsettled. We can finish them right here if we want to."
"I want to." Kamara said while holding her sword forward. "We don't leave anything to chance. We eliminate our targets. Always." She glanced at her targets, only to realize one thing. Shiki wasn't on the ground anymore. "…Where did the Galactica go?"
"RIGHT HERE!" Shiki's voice boomed out from above. All eyes glanced up and they saw Shiki in the sky, his fist reared back, gravity focused around it.
Kamara's eyes went wide. "But how!? His fear…!" Then she glanced at the Blue Bomber. Damn it, this guy knew too much! The Blue Bomber attacked her for a reason!
"Magi-mech attack…GRAVITY FIELD!" Shiki slammed into the ground fist first, generating a powerful gravitational field that expanded from his location, pushing outwards. As strong as the Goldstones were, the force of gravity did prove to be a foe they couldn't fend off so easily. The field expanded rapidly, pushing against them and throwing the three of them back.
"Took you long enough to wake up." Blair said. She was the one dragging him along, but he suddenly woke up and bolted outwards.
"We're pulling back!" Shiki told Blair and the others. It was too dangerous to engage the Goldstones anymore while the odds weren't in their favor.
"To the ship?" Rebecca asked worriedly. "We're not in the condition to…"
"Pst…!" A voice called out to the crew of the Eden's Zero. They all looked and saw a woman with brown hair tied into a pony tail and green eyes. She was wearing a battle suit of some kind. "Grab anyone on your ship and follow me!"
"Who the hell…?" Blair didn't exactly trust anyone on this planet since they were all attacking each other.
"Hurry! Just follow me!" The woman said. Shiki just nodded and decided to fly up to the Eden's Zero, not wasting any time in getting Hermit, Sister, Pino, and Couchpo. There was no time to explain. The woman in the meantime glanced at the Blue Bomber. "And it's as I thought, he'd be here too…what's that guy's deal…"
"You don't know who he is?" Homura asked.
"Or what he is…" Hermit said while eying the Blue Bomber curiously. He looked back at her and their gazes met for a moment, but the Blue Bomber was quick to turn back.
"We can talk about that later. But I know a place that we can hide away from the Goldstones!" The woman said, heading deeper into the jungle. The crew of the Eden's Zero saw little option but to abandon the ship for now and head with her.
The Blue Bomber looked over his shoulder towards the escaping group, then back to the Goldstones, who were beginning to recover from Shiki's sudden attack. "….."
"It's time for us to head out, kid. As much as I wanna fight those guys here and now, this wasn't what we came here for." The voice within the Blue Bomber spoke to him. "But next time we run into these clowns, I'm really gonna enjoy it!"
"I know…" The Blue Bomber said with a nod before vanishing in a ray of blue light. He was gone just as quickly as he appeared. By the time the Goldstones realized it, everyone already fled.
"Ah, man…" Max said with a disappointed frown. "They turned tail and ran. I expected more out of them."
"We're not done dealing with them." Athena said while dusting herself off. "They're stuck here on Delta Ridge now. And since that Black Moon Star piece fell, I have no doubt they'll be trying to obtain it while liberating this planet."
"It's pointless for them." Kamara closed her eyes, turned around, and started to walk off. She sheathed her sword. "The battle on this planet was already lost. Their arrival is only delaying the inevitable."
"Actually, I think this just made our job a lot more fun!" Max said while slinging his arms around his sisters' shoulders, pulling Kamara back before she got too far. "We've been busy wiping up a bunch of people that can barely fight back. It's been a while since a single person, let alone of group of people, has given us any kind of push back! I really want to fight these guys now and see what they're really made of. We're really going to get our money's worth."
"You're getting too excited." Kamara said while rolling her eyes.
"But you want to clash swords with that swordswoman again, don't you? I saw it in your eyes, Sis!" Max said with a widening grin. Kamara only scoffed in response, but he knew what that meant. "And you, Athena?"
"The mission comes first." Athena said while separating herself from the sibling hug. "But don't forget to enjoy yourselves. After all, I have full faith in your abilities. They may have slipped away from us this time, but they're stuck on this planet with us…not just us, but Ziggy's android army. Delta Ridge is an extremely important planet to his plan, and I couldn't care less what his goal is. As long as we're getting paid, and the two of you are safe…this line of work will continue."
"Don't get sappy on us." Kamara said with a hint of a smile. "We still have work to do, after all. We let the Resistance through us."
"It's fine." Athena said with a knowing smirk. She looked up into the sky, watching the Golden Knight Gear descend somewhere in the distance. "It's as you said, the battle the humans are fighting on this planet was lost. The new Demon King's arrival won't change anything. One way or another, this planet is fated to fall…and so will every native here along with it."